This application claims benefit of the filing date of provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/423,847 filed Nov. 5, 2002.
(1) Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a clean-in-place processing mill including a pull-in-place screen as well methods for cleaning a processing mill having a pull-in-place screen. The processing mill of this invention includes a housing having a screen that is movable inside the mill. The screen is moved away from sealing surfaces before cleaning without disassembling the machine thereby facilitating the cleaning of all surfaces with a cleaning fluid. Once cleaning is complete, the screen may be indexed back into position for further processing or the machine may be disassembled an reconfigured.
(2) Description of the Art
The requirement for clean-in-place machinery has become a standard in the food industry and the standard is fast being adopted by the pharmaceutical industry. Clean-in-place machinery allows the processing portions of the machinery to be cleaned without dissembling the machinery thereby providing total containment of the processed materials and the cleaning fluids during the cleaning process. In addition, clean-in-place machinery protects operators from being exposed to hazardous processing materials and cleaning fluids.
Some processing machinery includes screens or other components which are mechanically fastened inside a housing when the equipment is assembled for operation. One problem with such machinery is that processing debris must be removed from all internal machine surfaces during cleaning. For typical processing machinery, this requires disassembling portions of the machinery so that all the machinery surfaces can be cleaned. Disassembling processing mills for cleaning is time consuming and the resulting cleaning process is messy making it very difficult to contain the cleaning fluids.
There is a need therefore, for pharmaceutical and food processing machinery that can be thoroughly cleaned in place without dissembling the processing machinery.